The present invention relates to an operation of a turntable of a microwave oven, and more particularly to an apparatus and a method for controlling the stop position of the turntable of the microwave oven to coincide a starting and ending position of the food placed on the turntable so as to promote usefulness.
As illustrated in FIG. 1, the conventional invention comprises a microcomputer 2 for storing key data inputted from a key input unit 1 and for controlling the total system of the microwave oven by read of the stored data, a relay drive unit 3 for controlling a high voltage transformer which oscillate a magnetron and the turntable according to the control of the microcomputer 2, a door sense unit 4 for sensing an opening and closing of a door, a display unit 5 for displaying various information, for example, the status and time of the operation of the microwave oven, an alarm generation unit 6 to operate a buzzer for sounding the termination of cooking, and a power supply unit 7 for supplying the power to each unit of the system.
The foregoing conventional invention will be described in detail as follows.
To start cooking of food placed on the turntable in the heating chamber, when the user pushes the start button located in a key input unit 1, the microcomputer 2 controls the types of cooking in accordance with the stored data.
First, the microcomputer 2 is sensing the position of the door through the door sense unit 4, and making a display unit 5 show the various information, including cooking time when the sensed value indicates the closing status of the door. Simultaneously, microcomputer 2 controls the relay drive unit 3, so as to rotate the turntable and to make a high voltage transformer oscillate the magnetron so that microwave energy is oscillated into the heating chamber to cook the food.
During the cooking process, the microcomputer 2 is constantly checking the cooking time set by the user and controls the alarm generation unit 6, so as to stop the rotation of the turntable and further to stop the oscillation of magnetron when the count down result reaches to zero.
However, in the conventional microwave oven, if the food is placed in a forward position when the cooking is terminated, the relay drive unit 3 intercepts the power supplied to the turntable, so that the turntable motor stops and the turntable also stops in a random position.
Accordingly, the conventional microwave oven has many problems with taking out the food in the microwave oven after the cooking is over, because of the starting and ending position where the food is placed on the turntable are different.